Ex-assistant sheriff gets two years probation

Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl beams as he leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation.JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl was sentenced Monday to two years probation for filing a false tax return, getting credit from a federal judge for his cooperation in the prosecution of former Sheriff Mike Carona.

Haidl, 57, who recorded conversations with Carona and testified against him, will have to perform 200 hours of community service and pay a $40,000 fine as part of his sentence. The community service assignment wasn't detailed.

Haidl escaped a heftier sentence because of his cooperation with the government, U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford said at the hearing.

The former assistant sheriff, who served from 1999 to 2004, was the key prosecution witness in Carona's federal trial in 2008, testifying that he funneled illegal campaign funds to Carona's 1998 campaign, as well as paying bribes to the former sheriff.

On Monday, Guilford commended Don Haidl for testifying against Carona.

"(It) was a particular humbling experience for him to take the stand. I think there is a penalty for that,'' the judge said.

Haidl secretly recorded three conversations he had with Carona in the summer of 2007. During one conversation, Carona tried to sway Haidl's possible testimony to a grand jury investigation of the Sheriff's department. That exchange was the basis for Carona's witness-tampering conviction.

Guilford also said he hoped the probationary sentence for Haidl would give corrupt law enforcement officers pause.

"I want there to be a message loud and clear to every cop out in the country engaging in criminal conduct that there is a possibility that people engaging in that conduct with them will be going to law enforcement,'' Guilford said.

Haidl's crime involved filing a false tax return in 2003 to try to recoup some of his fortune spent on the criminal defense of his son Greg Haidl, who faced sexual assault charges, according to a filing last month in the case.

Greg Haidl was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2006 after he and two friends were convicted in a 2002 sexual assault of a teenage girl.

Don Haidl pleaded guilty in March 2007 to illegally filing the return, and agreed to help out with the prosecution of Carona and another former assistant sheriff, George Jaramillo.

The sentencing hearing on Monday was a continuation from a hearing in January, during which Haidl apologized to Guilford for his actions.

"I apologize to this court, I apologize to the public. I apologize to my family,'' Haidl said in January. "The things I did were wrong and I accept that ... I take full responsibility."

Carona was convicted in January 2009 of witness tampering and sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison. He is out free pending appeal. Jaramillo is serving a 27-month sentence on his guilty plea to filing false tax return and honest services mail fraud.

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Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl beams as he leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl beams as he leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl beams as he leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl at the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting to knowingly filing a false tax return. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, right, arrives at the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, March 15, for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filed a false tax return. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, right, takes one last drag of a cigarette before entering the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, March 15, for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filed a false tax return. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl leaves the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana March 15 for sentencing after admitting that he knowingly filing a false tax return. Haidal could have faces several years in jail for his actions, but, instead got two years of probation. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Asst. Sheriff Donald Haidl in 1999. REGISTER FILE PHOTO,

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